'7 Minutes Of Terror' - Mars Phoenix Lander Landing On Sunday

[Mike F]

Pretty amazing.

I guess they got their kilometers & miles sorted out.

[arsenal]

Originally Posted by GreenLantern

Touchdown!

Now are they going for the 2 point convert? Or just the single?

[troutman]

The Phoenix has landed!

[SebC]

Originally Posted by Nehkara

- The Mars Phoenix Lander is too heavy to land using airbags, the way that the rovers did. Phoenix must land using stabilizing thrusters and landing legs, a method that has only ever been done successfuly twice on Mars and not a single time in the last 30 years.

Ironprobe? Anyways, Phoenix has landed. Now imagine what will happen if now that it's there it doesn't do anything!

Just overheard that it landed with a 1/4 degree tilt. Pretty good, I say!

Woah, there's a girl there!

Sponsored by LG?

"Mom, we did it!"

Maybe three girls!

I swear it says "Attitude Conrol" in front of the guy nearest the camera.

This feed is awesome.

[browna]

I now know how Docker's and their khaki pants stays in business.
Akward celebrations by the nerds, to be sure...but a successful landing...(or there's 50 guys who're pulling over a fast one on us and Phoenix is actually careening off into Jupiter's orbit as we speak).

[Daradon]

Heheh, but they are so cute in their matching outfits.

I dunno, with a name like Phoenix I was expecting a different ending, lol.

Serious question for a moment. Why do they keep sending probes and vehicles to Mars? Are they still looking for signs or water or life? Is it general exploration? Are they trying to pinpoint one of those face rocks? I remember lots of people getting excited for the landings of these vehicles but not much newsworthy every coming back once they land.

[Mike F]

Zimas for everyone!

Anyone know when we might start seeing pictures?

[SebC]

Originally Posted by browna

I now know how Docker's and their khaki pants stays in business.
Akward celebrations by the nerds, to be sure...but a successful landing...(or there's 50 guys who're pulling over a fast one on us and Phoenix is actually careening off into Jupiter's orbit as we speak).

The Phoenix landing is a hoax.

[TheyCallMeBruce]

Originally Posted by Daradon

Heheh, but they are so cute in their matching outfits.

I dunno, with a name like Phoenix I was expecting a different ending, lol.

Serious question for a moment. Why do they keep sending probes and vehicles to Mars? Are they still looking for signs or water or life? Is it general exploration? Are they trying to pinpoint one of those face rocks? I remember lots of people getting excited for the landings of these vehicles but not much newsworthy every coming back once they land.

Not so much life form search, but that is definitely factored in as one of the reasons. Main reason really is to make sure there are resources you can use in the event you do plan to terraform mars for human colonization. And the main thing you will need is water.

[browna]

2h for pictures...solar panels have to deploy about now to power everything, then the equipment starts waking up, the camera one of the first.

[Daradon]

I didn't mean life form, but signs of life, like microscopic fossils they thought they found once.

Ok, so what have they found in the way of resources? Like I said, I can't remember anything really exciting have been found yet. But I could just not be aware of it.

[troutman]

Originally Posted by Daradon

Serious question for a moment. Why do they keep sending probes and vehicles to Mars? Are they still looking for signs or water or life? Is it general exploration? Are they trying to pinpoint one of those face rocks? I remember lots of people getting excited for the landings of these vehicles but not much newsworthy every coming back once they land.

Mission Overview:

http://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/ph...ion/index.html

Mars is a cold desert planet with no liquid water on its surface. But in the Martian arctic, water ice lurks just below ground level. Discoveries made by the Mars Odyssey Orbiter in 2002 show large amounts of subsurface water ice in the northern arctic plain. The Phoenix lander targets this circumpolar region using a robotic arm to dig through the protective top soil layer to the water ice below and ultimately, to bring both soil and water ice to the lander platform for sophisticated scientific analysis.

The complement of the Phoenix spacecraft and its scientific instruments are ideally suited to uncover clues to the geologic history and biological potential of the Martian arctic. Phoenix will be the first mission to return data from either polar region providing an important contribution to the overall Mars science strategy "Follow the Water" and will be instrumental in achieving the four science goals of NASA's long-term Mars Exploration Program.

--Determine whether Life ever arose on Mars

--Characterize the Climate of Mars

--Characterize the Geology of Mars

--Prepare for Human Exploration

The Phoenix Mission has two bold objectives to support these goals, which are to (1) study the history of water in the Martian arctic and (2) search for evidence of a habitable zone and assess the biological potential of the ice-soil boundary.

"Not much newsworthy"?

Past Missions :

http://www.nasa.gov/missions/past/index.html

[Daradon]

Originally Posted by troutman

Mission Overview:

http://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/ph...ion/index.html

So in other words, nothing really new. Look for water.

[browna]

Originally Posted by Daradon

Look for water.

A few ladies from up north may hold out hope that a cute Mars man gets in one of the grainy pictures.

[TheyCallMeBruce]

Originally Posted by Daradon

So in other words, nothing really new. Look for water.

Which is huge. If you want to colonize Mars, you'll need water.

[Locke]

First of all, I want my admission fees refunded. I was not terrorized for even a moment of those 7 minutes, and this is a clear infringement on the agreed upon sequence of events.

Secondly, during the actual moment itself, was anyone else openly hoping for Discovery Channel Dude to shut the fata up?

Everytime you were about to hear the actual NASA announcement, big mouth feels the compelling urge to hear himself speak and you couldnt hear what was actually going on.

The dude in Washington didnt say a word trying to listen to what was happening and DCD was trying to start up an idle chat about the weather on Mars.

[Daradon]

Originally Posted by TheyCallMeBruce

Which is huge. If you want to colonize Mars, you'll need water.

Ok agreed, but I was wondering if they had a great new spot to look for that held some promise, or whats important with the area they landed on.

If they are looking for water, why don't they just land one of these things on the cap? Or are they checking to see if it runs throughout the planet?

I guess what I was asking, what makes this different, or a step forward from the previous missions?

[TheyCallMeBruce]

Originally Posted by Daradon

Ok agreed, but I was wondering if they had a great new spot to look for that held some promise, or whats important with the area they landed on.

If they are looking for water, why don't they just land one of these things on the cap? Or are they checking to see if it runs throughout the planet?

I guess what I was asking, what makes this different, or a step forward from the previous missions?

They've actually landed in an area where water or ice is suppose to only a few inches to almost a foot deep. All they have to do is start digging, I believe.

To me, it is amazing that they've only spent half a billion, which is considerably cheaper than previous missions to mars.

[The Fonz]

BREAKING NEWS

The Phoenix was just destroyed! This is the last image NASA saw before it happened...




Nobody knows what it is...

[TheyCallMeBruce]

Originally Posted by The Fonz

BREAKING NEWS

The Phoenix was just destroyed! This is the last image NASA saw before it happened...




Nobody knows what it is...

WALL·E is on mars? Holy Buddah!